Dell Dimension 5000 and Windows 7

I've upgraded this machine from XP to 7 Home Premium. I've got a couple of problems to be resolved and if someone could help me I would be grateful. I suspect these are driver problems - I tried to resolve them myself as the Dell website is not of any help with this machine and Windows7; that clearly got me onto some dubious sites as I had to do a malware clear out after that unsuccessful visit!!

1 - No audio: Control Panel says 'No audio device installed'

2 - No Google Earth - I suspect that this is the same problem as running some of the games. It would seem that the video accelerator is not switched on - the games warn me of this and although in general they work, they are slow. Google Earth wanted DirectX but that made no difference and then when I tried OpenGL I was told that it needed '3D accelerated and Shading'; as it worked OK on XP, it would seem the hardware is OK.

Thanks for any help and apologies if this has been covered before - Search didn't come up with anything.

The Dell website for the Dell Dimension 5000 doesn't show drivers for Vista, let alone Win 7, so it's going to be a case of trying to find drivers elsewhere. Note: You need to let us know whether your new Win 7 Home Premium install is 32-bit or 64-bit.

If this doesn't work, try the advice in this blog. I know it's a different model of Dell but it's the same audio device (Analog Devices ADI 198x aka SoundMax ADI 198x).

Google Earth
It sounds like you don't have the correct or best graphics driver. However, the Dell website for the Dell Dimension 5000 shows it came with one of 3 different graphics systems, 2 of them onboard (Intel 82915G/GV/910GL or Intel 915G) and the third was a dedicated card (nVidia 256MB PCI Express x16 GeForce 6800). You haven't mentioned graphics as a problem, per se, so I guess Win 7 detected the graphics device and installed a built-in driver. Have a look in Device Manager and, under Display adapters, let us know what was detected and whether there are any icons against it (and against any other device).

OK it's 32 bit - there's always at least one bit of information that one forgets to include!

It took me a moment or two to find that Control Panel has to be played with to get to the Device Manager. This shows that Audio and Video are both 'yellow-starred', and as you say Windows 7 is just working off the 'Standard VGA Graphics Adapter'.

I also trotted off to the Dell website to see what you were looking at there.

The audio driver you suggested didn't oblige, but maybe I need to be persistent and try again with it. I've printed out the instructions from Bondy's Blog - an impressive find that; well done.

I was about to say I couldn't remember how to find the details of the chip set, but realised that it might well be in Device Manager too. Yep! and it's the 915G/GV/910GL variant. So that should set me off on the right path.

Many thanks Rick - you've showed me where to go and I should be able to follow the path through now. I'll report back - and hopefully that will be with a whooppee!

Try this first... go back to Device Manager, expand each device with the yellow exclamation marks then right-click on the device itself. Select the top option, which should be to Update Driver Software....

Hi Rick - I tried that before I responded the first time; I should have mentioned that- sorry.

The reaction was an almost immediate 'NO'.

I'm trying to get Intel to do the update, but their driver software requires Java which I'm a little hesitant about loading. Did so but then the Intel site went down.

I did get a report from DriverIdentifier which is pretty comprehensive. It identified the two missing drivers and said that the USB ones require updating.

I'll see how I get on with Intel for the graphics driver. If it doesn't go, a cheap graphics card will be the solution. The audio driver I have down loaded - is there anything special about installing drivers ?

I see what you mean about needing a Java environment for the Intel Driver Update Utility to work. Even if you did install a Java Runtime Environment I doubt if it would work. All I've read so far is that the graphics part of the Intel 915 chipset is incompatible with Win 7.

There's not usually anything special about installing drivers except to make sure you are logged into an account with administrative privileges or - better still (IMHO) - right-click on any driver installer .exe/.msi (e.g. setup.exe) and choose the option to Run as administrator. If the driver is in the form of a .zip file then un-pack it to a temporary folder and, in Device Manager, use the Browse my computer for driver software option to point to the temporary folder.

The Following User Says Thank You to Rick Corbett For This Useful Post:

Let's hope this thread is of use to others facing the same or similar problem.

What I did find more by chance than anything else was the "Action Center" - (got to be said with a deep-south US accent !!! - I'm in Scotland). For any other W7 newbie it's the 'Flag' icon in the bottom RH corner. Playing with this led me a bit off course for the evening, but I did find a Troubleshooting button which offered to go off to the World and find drivers for me. It did succeed in sorting the audio problem - I didn't get to know if that was a driver or some switch, but I now have sound. But it too failed on the Intel chipset, so a graphics card it will be; in all likelihood even a cheap modern card will be better than what we were trying to activate.

Thanks Rick for an interesting and helpful conversation, and the guided and unguided tour of various websites. Scottish weather is such that yesterday was shirt off hot weather (for us) and we were all outside - today rain and 8 deg C , that is about 45F, so I was happy enough to have a desk day to do some paperwork and sort computer failings.